Air circulator



M. WEBER AIR CIRCULA'IOR March 1, 1949.

2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Dec. 9, 1944 INVENTOR. flax fiber March 1949. M. WEBER 2,463,337

AIR CIRCULA'I'OR Filed Dec. 9, 1944 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Mar. 1, 1949 UNIT ED S TAT ES PAT ENT OFFICE AIR CIRCULATOR Max Weber, Chicago, 111.

Application December 9, 1944, Serial N0.'567,457

'8 Claims.

This invention relates to air circulators, and more particularly'to air circulators designed for general use in ventilating and circulating air in homes, offices, and. other places.

Specifically, the invention relates to a guard for the fan of the air circulator and to a mounting for its motor.

One of the objects of the invention is to provide new and improved. means for directing the air to the fan and for reducing rotary motion of the air prior to its being acted upon by the fan, whereby the velocity of the air stream created bythe fan is increased.

Another object of the invention is to provide a new and improved guard and mounting constructed so as to reduce vibrations and noise emanating from the fan and the drive motor.

An additional object of the invention is to provide a guard and mounting so constructed'that it is universally adaptable andsimply converted to a great number of air circulator adaptations.

Other objects of the invention will become apparent throughout the progress of the specification and claims in which Fig. 1 is .a top plan view of an air circulator embodying the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a front elevational View; .Fig. 3 is a sideelevational view;

Fig. 4 is a front elevational view of the framework per se, showing an alternative form of mountingfor the framework;

Fig. 5 is a detail of one of the fan guard mounting means ontheline 5-5 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 6 is a detail of another of the fanguard mounting means on the line 65 of Fig. 2;

Fig. '7 is a front elevational view of a part of the.framework,.showing another alternative form of mounting;

Fig. 8 is a front elevational view of a part of the framework, showing another alternative form of mounting;

Fig. 9 is a front elevational view .of apart of the framework, showinganother alternative form of mounting;

Fig. -10 is a detail sectional view, showing the adaptability of the invention for use as an intake fan; and

Fig. 11 -is a detail showing a plan view of the frame,.motor and fan blade of the-air circulator.

In the selected embodiment of applicants inculator for adjustment to any position.

vention, there is provided a rectangular frame I. The frame I comprises a top member 2, a bottom member 3, and side members 4, all composed-of fiat strips whose planes are perpendicular to the plane of the rectangular frame I. In addition, the plane of the rectangular frame I is distorted so that it is substantially parallel to the plane of the trailing edges 5 of the fan blade 6 (see Fig. 11).

The top member 2 and the bottom member 3 are so spaced apart that they'embrace the body of the fan motor 1. Two side struts 8 embrace the sides of the fan motor I and. interconnect the top member 2 with the bottom member 3, so as to center the fan motor in the framework and to impart rigidity to the entire structure. The fan motor 1 is maintained between the top member 2, the bottom member 3, and the side struts 8 by any suitable meanssuch as the screws 9 which are fed through the side struts into tapped holes in the body of the fan motor.

With this construction, the top member 2 and the bottom member 3 of the frame I lie in the same plane as that of the normal flow of air currents through the air circulator and, as a result, they impede or tend to prevent rotary motion of the air prior to its contact with the fan blades. In this way, the velocity of the air is greatly increased over that in a fan not incorporating similar air baflle members.

The top member 2 and the bottom member 3 of the rectangular frame .I are both considerably longer than the side members 4 and are preferably of a length of at least three inches greater than the diameter of the fan. The rectangular frame I is pivoted for full 360 rotation on a horizontal axis as by .pivots l0 mounted to the side members 4. The pivots 10in turn are supported, as at H, to the upper ends of a U-shaped supporting member 12. This supporting member [2 is pivotally mounted as at l 3 to a heavy circular base Hi.

This structure forms a very convenient and inexpensive mounting forsupporting an air cir- The rectangular frame I rotates through 360" on its horizontal axis and the U-shaped supporting member l2 rotates through a full 360 on a vertical axis.

The fan blade and fan motor are entirely 3 covered by a guard l5 which serves two purposes. In addition to the normal purpose of guarding the fan blade 6 from accidental contact, the guard l5 serves the further purpose of absorbing sound vibrations arising from the operation of the air circulator. The guard l5 comprises two similar cages, a front cage l5 and a rear cage I1,

and is preferably constructed of a No. 10 gauge,

Wire. The top and bottom marginal wires l8 form the margin for each wire cage and. also extend across the front of the cage to serve as a portion of the cages framework as at l9. Vertical wires extend from the upper margin to the lower margin of each guard and are additionally supported by horizontal wires 2|.

It has also been desirable to form the outermost of the vertical wires 20 as an inner margin of each cage so as to form an additional support for the extremities of the remainder of the vertical wires 20. Fig. 1 as at 22. The wires are secured together at their several junctions by any suitable means, such as spotwelding, soldering, or the like.

The front cage l6 and the rear cage W are secured to the side members 4 of the rectangular frame l. One means for effecting such a fastening is illustrated in Fig. 6, wherein the marginal wires 18 of the front cage It and the rear cage ii are clamped between one of the side members 4 and a washer 23 by means of a screw 24 which is screwed into a tapped hole in the side member 4.

A handle 25 is provided as a convenience in carrying the air circulator from place to place, and may be secured to the front and rear cages by means of screws 26. These screws 28 are threaded into tapped holes in clamp 2'1, see Fig. 5. The cages may be secured between the clamp 21 and the handle 25 by tightening the screws 26.

In order to efiectuate and take advantage of the sound-absorbing qualities of the applicants guard, it is essential that the mid portions of the vertical wires 28 be arranged in parallelism with the side members 4, and that the plane in. which said mid portions lie be curved. In this way, the maximum sound-absorbing qualities may be obtained.

If the applicant's mounting and guard be used for a long-bodied fan motor, certain of the central ones of the vertical wires 20 may be cut as at X in Fig. 2, to thereby form a circular opening through which the fan body may extend.

The applicants mounting and guard is susceptible to a great many different types of installation; for example, it may be used with a heavy cast circular base M,'illustrated in Figs. 2 and 3, as a portable table fan. If desired, the pivotal mounting l3 and the base Hi may be re-j moved from the supporting member 12 and a pair of angle members 28, see Fig. 4, may be substituted for a fixed wall, floor, or ceiling mount mg.

'As' an alternative, the base It may be removed and a bracket member 29, see Fig. 7, may be substituted to serve as a pivotal mounting upon a wall, floor, or ceiling.

Another adaptation is to mount the bracket member 29 upon a plate 39 supported upon a heating element 3i so that warm air may be readily circulated as it rises from the heating element.

An additional alternative installation may be had by removing the base l4 and substituting a tall pedestal 32 so as to form a floor model air circulator.

This inner margin appears in a If desired, the rear cage H, the entire U-shaped supporting member, and the pivots l0 may be removed from the side members 4, and the resulting assembly may then be installed in proximity with an opening in a wall 33, see Fig. 10, to form an intake fan. Similarly, instead of removing the rear cage ll, the installer may remove the front cage IB and use the air circulator as an exhaust fan.

As a further alternative installation, both the front and rear cages l6 and I? may be removed and the rectangular frame I with the attached fan motor and fan blade may be mounted within a conduit.

Changes and modifications within the scope of the appended claims may be made without departing from the spirit and the scope of the applicants invention.

I claim:

1. In an air circulator having a motor and fan blades, means for mounting the motor, comprising four flat members arranged in a rectangle, the planes of said flat members being perpendicular to the plane of the rectangle and parallel to the normal flow of air through the circulator,

parallelism with said short ends of said frame said curved plane being perpendicular to the axis of said motor.

3. In an air circulator having a motor and fan blades, means for mounting the motor comprising four flat members arranged inan elongated rectangle having long and short members, the planes of said flat members being perpendicular to the plane of the rectangle and parallel to the normal flow of air through the circulator and the plane. of said rectangle being distorted so as to be parallel with the trailing edges of the fan blades, and a guard secured to the short members of said framework, said guard being constructed of a plurality of wire members, portions of said wire members being arranged in a convex curved plane and in parallelism with the short members of said frame.

4. In an air circulator, a fan motor, an elongated rectangular frame having long and short members arranged for supporting said fan motor, a front guard detachably secured to the short end members of said rectangular frame, a rear guard detachably secured to the short ends of said rectangular frame, a mounting member pivotally and detachably secured to the short ends of said rectangular frame, and detachable means for supporting said mounting frame and member.

5. In an air circulator, a fan motor, an elon-f gated rectangular frame having long and short members arranged for supporting said fan motor, a front guard detachably secured to the short end members of said rectangular frame, and a rear guard detachably secured to the short end members of said rectangular frame.

6. In an air circulator, a motor, a motor mounting having an elementhaving maximum vibration, a guard, said guard comprising wire members parallel with each other and with said element having maximum vibration whereby sound and vibration waves emanating from said element having maximum vibration tend to be absorbed.

7. In an air circulator, a motor, a motor mounting having an element having maximum vibration, a guard, said guard comprising straight members arranged in a curved plane and parallel with each other and with said element having maximum vibration whereby sound and vibration Waves emanating from said element having maximum vibration tend to be absorbed.

8. In an air circulator an elongated frame having long and short flat members, a fan motor supported by said long members, a front guard and a rear guard, both guards being detachably secured to the short members of said elongated frame and the flat plane of said long members being parallel to the normal flow of air through the circulator.

MAX WEBER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS 

